The Turning Point

Inari's Story

The setting sun indicated they'd been at it for almost four hours.

Sasuke and Naruto fell to the forest floor for the umpteenth time, the former landed gracefully and turned to look at the blonde ninja who (only three hours ago could barely get one foot in front of the other) was now catching up to him. But how?

Naruto had no idea what he was doing until…

"Sakura" Sasuke muttered to himself as he remembered the pink haired teen whispering something inaudible to Naruto.

She'd obviously given him some sort of advice on how to focus his chakra better because as soon as she left Naruto began catching up to him. Although his Uchiha pride would never allow him to admit it, Sasuke was angry and a little envious that she had chosen to help the blonde boy instead of him.

Not that he needed her help in the first place…

Naruto on the other hand was getting progressively angrier. It seemed that every time he thought he had enough chakra up to make it all the way up the tree, it would just fizzle out and he'd be sent falling back to the ground.

"WHY IS THIS SO HARD?" Naruto yelled loudly drawing Sasuke's attention and both ninja froze glaring at each other.

No! No! No! If I think about Sasuke I'll lose my concentration! Believe it! Come on Naruto centre yourself! Remember what Sakura said…. Relax; focus on the tree Closing his eyes the knucklehead felt a surge of chakra pool to the bottoms of his feet

"Yeah! I can feel it! I'm going all the way this time!" Completely sure of himself Naruto charged at the tree once more.

"Hey Naruto" Sasuke called out completely taking his teammate by surprise and the blonde boy's face connected with the ground once more.

"AHHH! SASUKE WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I WAS TRYING TO FOCUS MY CHAKRA!" Turning to face the Uchiha prodigy Naruto fixed him with a glare.

"Well uh the thing is" Sasuke said, he couldn't believe he was about to do this.

"Yeah, the thing is what?" Naruto asked folding his arms, intensifying his glare

"Y-you know, you asked Sakura for advice when she was here. So what did she tell you?" Sasuke replied, eye twitching and cursed himself for stuttering, Uchiha men did not stutter.

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise before his mouth formed a huge grin. Sasuke immediately regretted his asking for help.

"I'm not telling you"

Racing across the rooftops Sakura could feel the fear rising within her.

This was the first time she would be going into a fight without a team to back her up.

The first time she'd be standing on her own against the enemy.

Her first proper fight out of the academy as an individual.

Questions flew through her mind, how many men would there be? Would she be able to last against them all and most importantly would she be too late?

Suddenly from the air she spotted a group of about 5 men surrounding a little girl who was holding a young baby boy.

"HEY LOOK HERE YOU BIG MEANIES! YOU CAN'T HAVE MY HOUSE AND YOU CAN'T HAVE MY BROTHER SO THERE!" The girl yelled with a volume that would rival Naruto as she stuck her tongue out at the menacing looking men, clutching the bundle of blankets that held her baby brother close to her chest.

"You've got a big mouth kid, now we've tortured your father and robbed your mother so all that's left to do is exterminate you two and the house. All your precious possessions will belong to Gatō" Laughter broke out among the thugs.